Crashing the internet?

This is not the first time that Microsoft has run into problems offering beta code by download. In June 2006, after it launched Windows Vista Beta 2, it urged users to order a DVD copy of the preview rather than download, claiming that if it boosted its bandwidth enough to handle all the demand, that could cripple the Internet as a whole.

"We are literally saying that if we increased our bandwidth any further there's a possibility of taking down the Internet," an unidentified Microsoft representative told Dutch blogger Steven Bink at the time.

My question is, is it really possible to crash the internet?, I mean crashing your own servers I understand but on a global scale?

Replies To: Crashing the internet?

Re: Crashing the internet?

Posted 10 January 2009 - 07:42 AM

I can't speak for the entire world, but in America there are several "backbone" companies that provide large bandwidth infrastructure, Savis comes to mind. If I recall correctly, they have the east coast. Anyway, those are the like interstate of the internet. Before fiber optic cable we had internet, it was just slower. Before the interstate existed there were still dirt roads people used to get from place to place.

The internet isn't controlled by one overmind computer arbitrarily somewhere in the south pacific. I call bullshit on MS. Their servers might go down, but taking the internet with them...? Have any of them read a data communications book?

Re: Crashing the internet?

Posted 10 January 2009 - 08:41 AM

A network can be overwhelmed with data. However, it's a function of scale and usually a failure of locality. It's also not the fault of the nodes ( the computers ) but the infrastructure. A router / switch / hub can be bottlenecked and even abused to the point that it stops working. But if you think about it, it's something of a self healing problem.

Once that router goes down, the traffic has to find another path. If enough routers go down, the source of the traffic is cut off. Networks got down usually from routers traffic getting caught in a loop, rather than some promiscuous nodes. The smarter ones a fault tolerant and react to fix it. Also, having different kinds of routers on a network, while hell to maintain, makes the network more robust, because different hardware fails differently.

Short answer, might be possible. But it would be really really hard to do. It would have to be the result of a concerted bot net attack on a global scale, consisting of a good portion on nodes. Even then, I'm not sure you could take everything down.

The way the guy you quoted said it? No. That's ignorance.

That said, domain servers are a weak point. If the top level domains could all be poisoned, a feat within the realm of possibility, then dns would fail. If you tried to go to http://whatever.com, it couldn't find it. However, most people don't talk to the top guys, but ISP caches and those would be fine. You'd probably still find google.com, just not all the content.

Re: Crashing the internet?

Posted 10 January 2009 - 08:43 PM

The internet is kind of like the American government. Un-overthrowable.

Since the Federal government is reciprocated at the state and local level it would be impossible to do so, you'd have to topple each individual state department as well. Same concept applies to the internet.

Re: Crashing the internet?

Posted 11 January 2009 - 09:26 AM

Nothing lasts forever. Nor is immune to political upheaval. The Romans ruled their world for 500 years at least. I'm sure they didn't think they'd ever go away. If you look at signs of an empire in decline, the US meets a lot of criteria. "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings..."

Politically, a network is a lot more like a group of terrorist cells. Or patriot cells, if you prefer. Each cell serves to relay information from point A to point B. The ultimate source and destination of that information is unknown, only the next jump on the tree. The cell only knows it's neighbor cells, nothing more. If a cell goes dark, the neighbor cells start relaying information to others on the path, instead. Each cell has no particular value, other than that it's in place and willing to do the job of the collective.

Fun history note: the great ancestor of all networks is ARPANET, a military project. It ultimately had two primary goals, robust communication and distributed computing. Some claim there was a concern with keeping the flow going during a nuclear attack, other now deny it.

Re: Crashing the internet?

Posted 11 January 2009 - 01:33 PM

Quote

Nothing lasts forever. Nor is immune to political upheaval. The Romans ruled their world for 500 years at least. I'm sure they didn't think they'd ever go away. If you look at signs of an empire in decline, the US meets a lot of criteria. "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings..."

Ugh. I wasn't asserting that it would. It was an analogy that the internet consists of cells, like you mentioned. Even if the rest of the internet died and I have my computer connected to a server, the internet continues to exist.